Chickenfoot Checks in With Chad Smith from the Road

Chickenfoot drummer Chad Smith wasn't able to head out with the band for its fall "Road Test" tour due to his commitments to his "other" band, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, so Kenny Aronoff manned the kit in his absence. The 'Foot did test runs of material from the recently released album 'III' and Smith was there in spirit. He kept in touch with his mates the entire time and may have even watched some footage from the shows on YouTube.

In a recent chat with Music Radar, bassist Michael Anthony said he views Aronoff as "one of the band…I mean, Chad's in the band, of course. But you know what I mean - Kenny's part of Chickenfoot." But the fill-in skinsman still has to answer to Smith.

Anthony said he believes that Smith has watched fan-filmed footage, so that's how he keeps an "eye" on things. "I think he has seen some things. Even though he's out there with the Chili Peppers, he keeps up with us," Anthony said. "He texted me recently and said, 'How's Kenny working out? If he's not kicking your ass, I'm gonna fly back and show him how it's done!'"

Guitarist Joe Satriani said that he received a text from Smith while on the road and turns out he stumbled on a reminder of home while overseas. "He was in London, and his driver had a huge Chickenfoot tattoo on his leg. How insane is that? We're communicating with him, and he's doing great," Satriani revealed.

The "Road Test" tour was a nice way for the band to wear away any accumulated rust and get into a groove to prepare for a larger scale tour down the road. The set list was comprised of mostly new material, and Anthony liked the fluid nature of selecting the songs. "It was pretty cool being able pick and choose songs instead of having to draw everything out," he said. "I mean, we did some jamming, but there has to be some limits. Sammy's a pretty talkative frontman , but even he runs out of stories to tell!"

"I think we did practically the whole new record – the only thing we didn't play is the song 'Different Devil,'" Satriani pointed out. "We held off on that one because it's going to be released as a single in January, I think."